In the first major Palm Beach County office sale in months, a 93,762-square-foot office building in Boca Raton changed hands for $20 million.

The sale of 980 N. Federal Highway was not publicly recorded, but a New York investor this month sold the property to a Miami group, said Scott O’Donnell, a broker at CB Richard Ellis.
The building last sold in 2005 for $26.5 million, reflecting falling values for commercial real estate.

To get around the credit crunch, the buyer, 980 North Federal Acquisition Group, assumed the mortgage of the seller, 980 North Federal LLC, O’Donnell said.

By structuring the sale as a transfer of corporate assets rather than a real estate sale, the buyer and seller avoided Florida documentary stamp taxes, which would have cost $140,000 on a $20 million sale. O’Donnell said there were “other reasons” for doing the deal as an entity transfer.